MANCHESTER, N.H. – Supporters of President Donald Trump and local Republican candidates gathered on Elm Street in front of the former campaign office of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Thursday in response to her selection as Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden’s pick as his running mate.
Participants in the event aimed to highlight the failures of Biden and Harris in the New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary, with Harris laying off her entire New Hampshire staff in November before dropping out of the race in December and Biden leaving for South Carolina prior to the conclusion of the Primary.
New Hampshire Trump Campaign Co-Chair and New Hampshire State Representative Al Baldasaro (R-Londonderry) says Trump has done more in his three years in Washington than Biden did over multiple decades in Washington, citing personal meetings he had with Biden while stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps in Delaware. Baldasaro added that reported impacts to the economy by the COVID-19 pandemic were “BS” and that Biden’s family should assist Biden in seeking medical assistance in addition to criticizing Harris.
“In the Marine Corps we have an old saying, sometimes if you screw up, you move up,” said Baldasaro. “Here in New Hampshire she screwed up, got no support and now she’s moved up.”
Several other speakers, including U.S. Senate Candidate Corky Messner and First Congressional District Candidate Matt Mowers echoed Baldasaro’s criticisms of Biden and Harris, also respectively accusing U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH) of serving the interests of Washington instead of New Hampshire.
While Harris and the other Democratic candidates tied in with accusations of supporting socialism and pretending to have moderate records, Messner also accused Harris of being disingenuous in light of the skepticism shown by some supporters of Vermont Senator and former Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“Harris is a political opportunist, she’s a chameleon. She’ll do what she has to do to gain power and advance her political career,” said Messner. “The fact that the Sanders people are criticizing her shows the pressure they’re putting on the Biden/Harris ticket to go further and further toward the path of socialism.”
The event was briefly interrupted by a protester holding a sign stating “everyone here supports a rapist,” with event volunteer Janet Griffin joining with others to escort the protester away from the scene as others drowned out the protester’s chants with their own until the protester gave up.
Griffin, a Londonderry resident, believes that Democrats seek to classify people based on race and factors while Republicans are welcoming without putting an emphasis on the differences between people.
For Griffin, the country needs unity and the solutions-based perspective she believes Trump represents. In contrast, she sees Democrats as shirking responsibility in favor of political gain.
“There’s no solutions, it’s blaming,” she said. “I’m shocked that we can’t come together to defeat the problems we face with COVID.”
New Hampshire Democratic Party spokesperson Will Rasky referred to the event as an attempt to distract Granite Staters from what he called Trump’s “chaotic and mismanaged” response to the pandemic as well as Trump’s attacks on social security, contrasting Trump to the message provided by this week’s Democratic National Convention.
“Thousands of Granite State voters from across the aisle have been listening this week to the stories of American families who have been directly hurt by Donald Trump’s actions and have been learning about the alternative: the real leadership Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will provide to move the country forward,” he said. “We hope that Manchester residents of all political parties will tune in tonight, and ask themselves, ‘am I better off now than I was four years ago?'”
